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Hawthorne tells chamber Bruce Power will have largest nuclear By Liz Dadson |
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 The new board of directors of the Kincardine and District Chamber of Commerce was sworn in at the annual meeting Nov. 30. In the back, are Gary Ballagh (L), Jeremy Ling, Allan Mackay, treasurer Travis Crawford, first-vice-president Cheryl Goetz, Gerry Taylor, Doug Storrey; and in front, Ryan Berry (L), president Linda Bowers, past-president Bob Simpson, Brenda Bateman and office manager Jackie Pawlikowski; absent is Marie Wilson | |||||
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By June of next year, Bruce Power will be operating the largest nuclear plant in the world.
Commenting on the restart of two reactor units at the Bruce A generating station, Hawthorne said Unit 2 is slated to be back on-line by the end of the first quarter, with Unit 1 following by the end of the second quarter. "We might do it in time for our 11th anniversary (May, 2012)," he said. "We'll have to see." Reflecting on the 10th anniversary of the lease agreement with Ontario Power Generation for the Bruce site which was done in May, 2001, Hawthorne said one of the first things he noticed back then was the great community support for the nuclear plant. "When you think of where this place was 10 years ago, we have come a long way," he said. "And just a few more months, we'll be operating the largest nuclear site in the world. That's exactly what we set out to do." Hawthorne was involved in British Energy which eventually evolved into Bruce Power and now operates the plant. He said 10 years ago, he could feel the community's pain as Bruce A was mothballed. "When we took over, we didn't need people telling us that laying up Bruce A was a bad decision," he said," but I wasn't here when that decision was made. Our plan was always to grow this community and retube and restart Bruce A." He said it was a huge risk and over the past 10 years, those people working on the restart have done some amazing things. "When we assumed the plant, there were 2,980 people working there," said Hawthorne. "Now, we have more than 7,000 people working here. That will start to ramp down with the completion of the restart." He said once all eight units are up and running, the employee number will be at 4,250. Hawthorne said Bruce Power has a superb reputation and with the successful completion of the restart project, that reputation will get even better. He lives here, himself, and noted that the community has a lot to offer. That's what the company promotes when recruiting employees to the area. And many people have to realize that this is rural Ontario and if they're from the city, they will experience a change in lifestyle. "But we have good health care here; we have good education; and amenities," said Hawthorne. "At Bruce Power, we know we're the economic engine of the community and we can't take that for granted. We can't be arrogant about it. It's important to have community support, and 'informed' community support." As for the completion of the restart, he said it will be late and over-budget, "but it will be a marvel of engineering work. We've spent a lot of money, but we're going to be here for a long time.
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"This
is a community-based company. I live in this community. I love this
community. No decisions are made from somewhere else. And we always have to
remember we are in the people business, not the nuclear power business.
It's important to communicate and listen to people. "By the time we bring Unit 2 back into service next year, it will have been 20 years since that unit operated. That's amazing; that's a great achievement." In other chamber business, president Linda Bowers and her board of directors were sworn in, including past-president Bob Simpson, first-vice-president Cheryl Goetz, treasurer Travis Crawford, and directors Ryan Berry, Allan Mackay, Marie Wilson, Brenda Bateman, Gary Ballagh, Jeremy Ling, Doug Storrey and Gerry Taylor. Bowers thanked Simpson for his hard work over the past two years as president of the chamber, and said a donation to the Goderich Disaster Relief Fund has been made in his name. She looks forward to the next couple of years, with activities and promotions by the chamber, and the establishment of the chamber website. One major change that was done at the annual meeting, was rescinding the entire set of bylaws of the organization, and instituting a new set. Bowers said the old set was created loosely in 1995 and was revised in 2006 but it was "grossly" out of date. "The Corporations Act has changed so much that we decided to just adopt a new set of bylaws rather than try to revise the old ones," she said. Also at the meeting, Taylor presented the chamber's new strategic plan which will help the organization develop partnerships, spur economic growth, develop memberships, improve financing, and improve communication planning. The group's mission statement states that the chamber is: "A voice for business in our community while providing quality service to achieve prosperity and civic pride." Taylor noted that volunteers are required to help implement this strategic plan. Scrolling stops when you move your mouse inside the scroll area. You can click on the ads for more
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That's the word from president and chief executive officer 
